Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Pine-apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the grated pineapple, sweet cream, butter, ¾ cup sugar, and egg yolks until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake until set.
Make and add the meringue
In another bowl, beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.
Gradually add 1 cup of fine sugar while continuing to beat until the meringue is glossy.
Spread the meringue over the baked pie and return to the oven until lightly browned.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Pineapple + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,134 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pineapple
- Provides the main fruit flavor and bulk of the filling's moisture and tartness.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling as they set during baking, giving it a custard-like body.
- Egg whites
- Whipped with sugar to form a stable, glossy meringue that browns on top.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and moisture, softening the filling as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, tender texture in the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and, in the meringue, stabilizes the whipped egg whites.
The step that matters
Beating the meringue to glossy. Egg whites must be whipped to a stiff froth before sugar is added gradually; under-beaten or greasy whites will not hold peaks and the meringue can weep or collapse in the oven. Sugar dissolves into the foam, making it glossy and stable.
Swap the pineapple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Pineapplethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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